I had very good luck today even though it is Friday the 13th. I wanted to get to Towpath Road in Montezuma early so I could avoid as much heat shimmer as possible. So I arrived around 845 am...a little later than I wanted...but early enough. My target bird was the STILT SANDPIPER. I dipped on this species at least 4 times at Heislerville, NJ in May among the thousands of dowitchers, dunlin, yellowlegs, plovers, peeps etc. There were apparently one or two and I just could not get on thee birds... needle in a haystack for me. Last summer, I failed to find these guys at Puddler's until Ken Rosenberg pointed them out to me. So my goal today was to see if I could succeed on my own.
I began and there were 3 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS to start among scads of LESSER YELLOWLEGS. There were also loads of CASPIAN TERNS, as I stated earlier, I counted 68 of them. There could be more. I also think I re-found one of the Common Terns that Jay had a couple weeks ago. There were also 2 non-breeding BONAPARTE'S GULLS probably the same ones I found two weeks ago. I also decided to count the ring-billed gulls...208! There actually were less peeps today and I found no semipalmated plovers and KILLDEER numbers seemed down versus two weeks ago. There were still many SPOTTED SANDPIPERS. I got great looks at many many LESSER YELLOWLEGS, a bird that could potentially be confused with STILT SANDPIPERS especially at a distance with shimmer. Some of them don't behave exactly as they are supposed to, occasionally. One thing I noted was that the yellowlegs seem to feed by swaying their bills from side to side in the water and they are of course more active. Occasionally I would see one that was not as active but eventually it would turn into an active yellowlegs. These birds also lack the prominent white supercilium and faint rufous stripe/patch seen in the face of the stilt. They also generally don't have much streaking or mottling on their breasts. So when one of the lesser yellowlegs started chasing a bird around, I realized that indeed it was a STILT SANDPIPER. Side by side it was obvious! The bird's bill was longer and slightly curved down at the end. The white supercilium was apparent, there was a little rufous on its face and the mottling was clearly seen on the breast. This bird was a bit smaller, shorter legs and has a different shape than the yellowlegs. What a great learning experience! Then this STILT SANDPIPER was joined by 4 others. There were also 3 more SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS that joined the group. These guys have thicker bills and are fatter and were in their more light rufous/orangish plumage still. So I had lesser yellowlegs, short-billed dowitchers and stilt sandpipers all that can be confused with each other. The short-billed dowitcher in its grayish non-breeding plumage can be confused with stilt sandpipers too, especially skinnier ones. So I had all three to look at and it was obvious. I enjoyed studying the plumages and their behaviors. The stilt sandpipers tend to hold their bills more vertical when they probe versus the yellowlegs. Of course the short-billed dowitchers still were in breeding plumage or just beginning to molt so there were no problems in identifying them today vs the stilt. Here are some photos from Puddler's Marsh today.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/sets/72157630562369194/ I spent around 2 hours here. The heat shimmer was rapidly increasing and I was hot...tired and ready to go home...then...I see an email from Tim Lenz about an avocet!!! Great luck today as this bird was still there when I arrived about 2 hours after his initial sighting. Who says summer birding is boring?!! Dave Nicosia Johnson City, NY -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
